How many Steel Players out there were Guitar Players First?

[Dave Hopping]

I'm in.Played six-string 20+ years,then added steel.I can REALLY relate to what Jim P says about thinking "guitaristically"(is that a real word?)at the beginning and having that be subtly limiting.Things opened up for me when I began to "think steel".When I'm lucky enough to find a gig I can do-see the never ending"stop playing in bands" thread for exhaustive discussion-I play mostly steel but some six string.

The bit about speaking foreign languages much more easily when you can think in that language also makes sense and seems to apply just as well to playing different instruments.

[Jim Curtain]

Bass player in High School (English Prog Rock.) Always loved the PSG, had the opportunity to buy one and sit and learn it, it's a nice mid-life crisis thing, and I can't afford a Ferrari.

[Sid Hudson]

As a young guitar player my approach of choice to soloing has always playing through the changes as opposed to the modal approach.

So,,, when I solo, I am always visualizing the chords. (substitutes, connecting chords etc…)

When I am soloing on the C neck I am always visualizing the fret board on my guitar.

When I look at the steel, I can see the notes on the steel as they lay on the fret board of my guitar.

I have often wondered if Guitar player/Steel Guitar players are doing the same thing.

[Jim Cohen]

When I look at the steel, I can see the notes on the steel as they lay on the fret board of my guitar.

Now that is one twisted mind!

[Sid Hudson]

That's what I was afraid of hearing.

[Daniel Policarpo]

Played guitar for almost 30 years until I picked up the steel several months ago. Its been several months since I picked up a six string.

[Bo Borland]

I was a guitar player first and still play a lot but it's 98% steel now.
I only know one good steel player that doesn't play anything else.

[Bo Legg]

All those years of guitar playing was a detriment to my learning how to play PSG.
I wasted a couple of years until I conceded that they were total opposites and I was developing bad habits and getting nowhere.
In the end the only thing useful I brought over from the guitar to PSG was the music knowledge I had accumulated.
I adopted Pick Blocking for my learning process and I was able to bring a lot of technique over to the guitar from the PSG.
I think I would have been a much better guitar player if I had learned PSG first.

[Jim Priebe]

(Sid Hudson Wrote) my approach of choice to soloing has always playing through the changes as opposed to the modal approach.

So,,, when I solo, I am always visualizing the chords. (substitutes, connecting chords etc…)

Same here - it works just the same on to a steel. I continually see fretboard patterns of scales and the chord notes within them. I think that has come across directly from guitar. In my case another thing that came across is that I play with a plectrum and finger picks (no thumb pick for me) which blows all those "this is the correct way to hold your hand" instructions out the door.

[Sid Hudson]

Jim, a straight pick and two finger picks?

Brother, you need some medicine. LOL.

[Joachim Kettner]

Yes, guitar first. I often pick up the guitar to find out how a melody goes, then place it on my lap and repeat it on the steel note for note. The memory of my fingers seems to work better than the memory inde my head.

[Joe Naylor]

I played steel first - they started me on steel at 6 since my fingers would not go around a guitar - at 12 I started on the guitar too - plus I am left handed - "everyone is born right handed some of us just over come it" -

Any way maybe that is why I build seats.

Joe Naylor
www.steelseat.com

[Roual Ranes]

Me too. I got the bug in 1968 and am still trying on the steel...........every time I learn something it opens up 40 more doors.

[Paul Wade]

i stated playing six string when i was a 11 years old
and still playing it but ,not as much lately. stared
on p.s.g in 1979 did double duty on six and p.s.g for 21 years now just playing steel.

p.w

[CrowBear Schmitt]

yep, i started out on guitbox too
went on to lap steel playin' blues on an open E w: a dom7 on string 4
went on to psg maverick & putzed around some w: no great conviction
12 years ago got a real psg , D10 & have had a ball ever since
yes, guitbox helped me alot - especially w: chords
C6 is a total blast

[Dave Hopping]

Maybe a little off topic...Taking up PSG helped my six-string playing a great deal.Palm blocking and volume swells really work well on six string.

[Joerg Hennig]

I started on guitar and picked up steel later, but they are really very different to me. When I want to learn the guitar part of a tune that I play on steel, I practically have to work it out all over again. Since I'm not that keen on music theory (I know something about it but just can't think in those terms when playing), I tend to "think visually" regarding the fretboard and my way of visualizing the guitar fretboard is very different from the steel. Also, since nowadays I play mostly non-pedal steel, I work a lot with "6th" tunings and those (for me) don't relate too well to the guitar either.

[Quentin Hickey]

I started on fiddle lessons when I was 8 and played fiodle for about 15 or so years, I started playing guitar when I was 13 on and off for about 10 years. Having played other insturnments really helps you learn steel much faster especially if you have theory traning. I have been fortunate enough to get some help where I live getting instructional material and get the chance to play with good players now and than.

If you are a guitar player than starting on the E9 neck is best as you can relate to some things that are similar on youre 6 string guitar.

[Quentin Hickey]

Coming form playing alot of blues and rock when I was younger I tend to look for pentatonic pockets on the E9 fret board and surprisngly they seem to be easier to find than I orignially thought.
C6, Still learning the neck and pedals so I cant really speak for that yet.

As a young guitar player my approach of choice to soloing has always playing through the changes as opposed to the modal approach.

So,,, when I solo, I am always visualizing the chords. (substitutes, connecting chords etc…)

When I am soloing on the C neck I am always visualizing the fret board on my guitar.

When I look at the steel, I can see the notes on the steel as they lay on the fret board of my guitar.

I have often wondered if Guitar player/Steel Guitar players are doing the same thing.

[Bob Simons]

Yep! Guitar for 45 years including a serious attempt at classical guitar- then pedal steel. Now my beautiful guitars sit alone and blue....

I did find that E9/B6 Universal allowed me to use many familiar geographic locations on the neck that I was used to from guitar....quite helpful.

I agree with the earlier post that playing pedal steel is closer to piano than guitar Guitar has so many partial chords and clumsy inversions to cope with requiring constant relocation on the neck and counterintuitive fingering that my poor analog brain couldn't quite wrap itself around more complex structures as easily as on the more nearly chromatic steel.

I also found that a classical guitar right hand technique is tremendously useful- including an awareness of the need and technique to stop notes as well as start them and to enunciate them with some subtlety.

[Donny Hinson]

I started on guitar back in the early '60s, playing mostly Ventures and Duane Eddy. Later, I played in groups that were more vocal-oriented, playing surf music, rock & roll, British rock, and even soul and motown. In the early '70s, I hung up guitar completely, as there were just too many fantastic guitar players, and I thought I had nothing to add to the instrument. Good guitar players always seemed to outnumber good steelers, and the disparity is only getting worse.

[Travis Lyon]

I'm a guitarist first, but the E9 neck, the only one I have right now, certainly lends itself to "guitar thinking" in terms of thinking in how every position simply inverts the intervals of scale/chord. The chromatic strings threw me off a little at first but once you know where they are (or I should say, once my hands could locate the strings and I could visualize them as intervals), I still think "guitar" as far as theory goes. I've been playing 4 months now and I'd say I know most of the basic things as far as major/minor chords and scales, but to take it to the next level is going to require thinking about the pedal steel like a pedal steel.

[Paddy Long]

I started on guitar when I was about 12 I think ... didn't get into PSG until my mid 20s ...but these days I hardly play guitar at all ... Dobro and Lap are also additional instruments in my arsenal which see more attention than 6 string too

[b0b]

I played guitar as a teenager but never got very good at it. I learned enough to "read" the chords from a guitar player's fingerings - a very useful skill at rehearsals and on the bandstand when you don't know the tune - but I'm still a lousy guitarist. I wouldn't hire me to play guitar.

[Sid Hudson]

I'm still a lousy guitarist. .

Don't feel lonely b0b. I hear that a lot as well.